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Where Reality Meets The Blur

RBlog is the section of Reality Blurs where we talk about publishing + other passions. Y'know, things we have in development and cool things bouncing around our noggins and/or the Internet. If you want to buy stuff, please visit the shop. If you want to comment, feel free, but if you want interactive dialogue, check out the community.

The Quickening

As much as that may appear to be a Highlander reference, it’s not. Today, I’m talking about the ugly world of data migration and system upgrades. Remember when I told you about having redundant systems and how essential they can be to your well being? Well, they have saved my bacon in a huge way. (And who doesn’t like their bacon?)

I have grumbled and alluded to technical difficulties, but I needed a little space before I could really discuss this–I’ve been hustling getting things up and running on another machine with minimal downtime and looking for a new system. A computer going south is like a bad breakup. You loved the thing and suddenly, it betrays you. In my case, the video card nearly exploded and the motherboard went with it. I may have mentioned it, but I’m running on vapors and I’m not looking back.

I managed to hunt down a new computer today, using the customization options I’m pretty pleased with what I’ll be getting. Yes, I could build my own (if I had your free time), but I don’t. The computer is an essential part of my day-to-day business, so I’m getting something robust enough where I don’t have to worry about it for a handful of years and can get on with the work.

It did give me pause to reflect on the other things which needed updating. I needed a new OS anyway (as I’ve been running Vista) and I need to get a more current version of Adobe Creative Suite (as mine is quite ancient) and we might as well throw in the latest version of Office as I’ve been running an old version. The good news? Everything will be bright and shiny for a while and I’ll be too busy manically trying to sort things out to properly revel in the newness of it all (maybe). The down side? The cost. It’s certainly a legitimate expense, but every penny counts. (Sorry, if I got too personal there.)

Bringing this around to gaming, keep in mind this shouldn’t disrupt our production schedule, and when I emerge from the other side we’ll be in the best shape ever (from a data integrity standpoint). I hesitate to use bulletproof as, when you do, everything starts looking like bullets. I will be getting a Raid1 system which means the second disc will backup all the data in real time. I’ll also have a proper network. I’ll still have Carbonite remotely backing up data and I’ll have an external HDD backing things up as well. I may not be bulletproof, but I’ll be wearing some Dragon Armor at the very least.

I just wanted to share that the business side of an RPG company is not always a pretty space to be in. It sounds like, well, a business, doesn’t it? The day-to-day minutiae is there, I suppose, to keep us humble and remind us of the ever looming threat of entropy. I’ll stave it off as best I can. The report? Not a lot of creativity going on at the moment by yours truly, but the team continues their work apace even while I try to make sure the lab, like some mad TARDIS, doesn’t tear itself apart.